India Vs South Africa 1ST Test: Brilliant Unbeaten Century By KL Rahul Puts India In A Strong Position!

India got into a strong position on the first day of the 1^st Boxing Day Test against South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion today, India at 272/3 at stumps off the full 90 overs. This is thanks to a technically sound unbeaten century crafted by opener and the stand-in vice-captain KL Rahul (122 not out in 248 balls) who first built up a 117-run opening partnership with Mayank Agarwal (60), then an 82-run one with captain Virat Kohli (35) and an unbeaten 4^thwicket partnership of 73 runs with Ajinkya Rahane (40 not out), batting out the full day on a pacy and bouncy pitch most suited for fast bowlers. Other than the luckless Cheteshwar Pujara who is literally playing for his place with players like Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari in reserve and who is without a ton in his last 43 innings got out for a first-ball duck, all batsmen so far have contributed well. For South Africa all the three wickets were captured by Lungi Ngidi. The host team must be sorely missing the services of their strike fast bowler Anrich Nortje who was out due to injury with all-rounder Marco Jansen making his debut in his place. The lone spinner Keshav Maharaj too is wicketless so far.

The selection of the India playing eleven has been judicious, mixing experience with promising youngsters which is why Pujara and Rahane have been retained while having a foursome pace-battery preferring Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj to Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah coming back to the team. Ravichandran Ashwin is the lone spinner and his selection is also justified. Mayank Agarwal is spiritedly trying to make the best of his chances thanks to the regular Test vice-captain and opener Rohit Sharma being ruled out of the Test Series and earlier rested for home Test series against New Zealand. KL Rahul proves yet again that he is specially made for test cricket in whatever batting position he is required. Interestingly, this is the first away Test Series for head coach of Team India, Rahul Dravid, once considered the great wall of Indian cricket.

Earlier, captain Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bat first. He looked to be in good nick despite the recent split-captaincy controversy. In this same venue Virat scored the highest ever individual score of 153 by a visiting cricketer in his only away test series against South Africa during 2017-18, and India actually lost that test match losing the 3-match series 2-1. In fact, the lone victory registered by his team in that visit is only the third by any India team. India is yet to win a test series against South Africa in South Africa. India looks to be in a sound position at the moment to force a win, if they go past 400 runs tomorrow with Rishabh Pant, Ashwin and even Thakur to follow. Winning the toss and the batsmen applying themselves well could definitely lead to conquering literally the last frontier. The pacy pitch of SuperSport Park is surely going to get worse with uneven bounce from the 3^rd or 4^th day onward. However, the South Africa pace-battery is yet to deliver true to their potential. We are in for some absorbing cricket ahead.

The VIP Brat: A Study in Contrast!

Here we’re talking about only two compartments inside a particular AC 2-Tier coach in a particular daily train under the Indian Railways that departs a particular originating station at around noontime and reaches the destination city early morning the next day. The train is popular because it is superfast and always on time. That fateful noon too, the train was ready for boarding about one hour before departure. We cut to the inside of that particular coach having those two compartments for our contrasting study. Two elderly couples were in a state of considerable distress. One of them, both technically senior citizens, had been allotted two upper berths and the husband was at his wits end how to proceed, because his wife was being taken for check-up after surgeries in both of her knees—she could hardly walk and her climbing up the berth was a sheer impossibility. The husband was also on the wrong side of the sixties, but he thought he could manage the climbing once he managed a ...

Mitali: The Trauma of Losing a Sibling

Maybe I lied to her when I used to reassure her that she was going to be alright and was going to resume her life in some measure of normalcy in the future years; maybe all my gestures/expressions were false when I used to run my fingers across her forehead or embrace her on occasions when she was able to move around a bit; and maybe all my exhibitions of love care and responsibility were exposed as superficial when I failed to turn up in Delhi where she along with my mother were treated during September-October, 2022 (my mother Urmila Chakravarty was also diagnosed with dental cancer the same month the same year as she was) and when all the members of my parental family and the in-laws converged. Since that fateful day in August, 2022 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer to that disastrous day of March 6, 2025—the day my younger blood sister Mitali (Mainu) Chakravarty Sarma (November 2, 1963—March 6, 2025) passed away in the wee hours in a hospital in Guwahati after giving a bra...

Release of Book 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories'!

The fourth collection of stories titled 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories' by Chinmay Chakravarty has been released on Amazon KDP just now! This collection, short stories in a lighter vein plus with mild satire like the previous collections, has been published in both the E-book and Paperback formats. The links are given below: International: Click Here ! India: Click Here ! Other collections of short stories by the same author: The Cheerless Chauffeur and Other Tales(2021)--Notion Press. Funny and Fishy Tales(2022)--KDP. The Weirdos(2022)--Ukiyoto Publishing. All books of the author are available on Goodreads, apart from Amazon and other outlets! Have a look!